As little as three weeks ago Dodgers right-hander Dan Haren wasn’t the least bit concerned that his $10 million player option for 2015 might not vest. In fact, Haren, who turns 34 next week, wasn’t even sure that he wanted to come back for another season and instead retire from the game leaving that $10 million, which is solely based on him pitching 180 innings this season, on the table.

“I couldn’t care less,” Haren told reporters after his August 22 win over the Mets. “It might sound stupid, but who knows if I would want to play next year? I’d rather throw 179 2/3 and us win the division, honestly.”

It’s certainly no secret that Dodger fans hold their collective breaths whenever Haren takes the mound, this because of his propensity for giving up a lot of home runs. But in his last six starts Haren has pitched far better than anyone could have hoped for from a number four starter. In those six starts Haren is 4-1 with a 2.03 ERA. And get this, Haren allowed only three home runs during that span – the same number that Clayton Kershaw has allowed over his last six starts and two fewer than Zack Greinke has allowed.

In his six innings of work on Friday night Haren allowed only one run on four hits while walking one and striking out six. He is now 12-10 on the season with a 4.17 ERA. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

So how did Haren turn things around? In one word – confidence.

“Absolutely I lost my confidence, I lost my confidence for sure. Any pitcher would having the stretch of games that I had,” Haren told reporters after Friday night’s 2-1 win over the Diamondbacks. “You know, I’ve got I don’t know how many starts, three or four here, and I’ve got to make them as good as I can for the team. Basically every game I’m just treating like a playoff game from here on out, every game is really a must-win for us at this point. There’s the difference between this and the playoffs and we’ve got to win these.”

Haren credits his improved cut fastball and even more so his improved curveball for his recent success.

“To lefties especially, I haven’t thrown [the cutter] as much to righties. I pitch in pretty good,” said the Monterey Park native. “My curveball has gotten a lot better these last five or six games. Just trying to not make as many mistakes with that cutter, it was really biting me with that tough stretch especially.”

Although health has always been a concern for Haren, especially his back, he insists that he is healthy now – at least as healthy as one could expect with only 21 games remaining in a long season.

“My health’s been fine. My back really hasn’t been an issue all year, knock on wood,” said Haren. “But I mean there’s aches and pains along the way and I’ve prided myself throughout my career on just being able to manage through them and pitch through them, pitch well through them. Right now I feel fine. I know it’s deep into the season but health-wise I feel good about where I am.”

With the Dodgers top three starters doing exceptionally well as the team closes in on their second consecutive NL West title, Haren admits that he would like to be the fourth starter heading into the postseason, but also admits that he hasn’t really given it much thought.

“I haven’t looked that far ahead. I mean, I don’t know how the [postseason] rotation works,” said Haren. “Obviously I know we got the front three guys. If there’s a need for a fourth guy of course I’d want to pitch but I haven’t really thought that far ahead. I’m just trying to win these games and pitch good for the team for the last 20 or so games here.”

And what does Dodgers manager Don Mattingly have to say about Dan Haren?

“I think his stuff is always fairly similar it looks like, and he just got out of sync a little bit,” said the Dodgers skipper. “And when he’s out of sync a little bit he doesn’t have that little late life [on his cutter]. I know that they looked at some things before, what he was doing, and if he doesn’t have that little bit of late movement it turns into flat and then it gets hit. He had that [late life] tonight, he’s had it for a few starts now. It just seems he got out of sync there somewhere in the middle, four or five starts, and kind of got flat and [gave] up a lot of long balls there.”

After his six innings on Friday night Haren now sits at 162 innings pitched this season – only 18 innings shy of the 180 needed for his option to vest, with (probably) four starts remaining. And while there will most likely be a few better number four or number five starters available this off-season than Dan Haren, there will undoubtedly be a lot more who are worse.